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LONDON, April 25 (IranMania) - Iranian security forces have launched a fresh hunt for the alleged ringleaders of deadly violence involving ethnic Arabs from the southwestern province of Khuzestan, an official was quoted as saying Sunday.

"The arrests of the main elements and others involved in the unrest has been underway since the morning," with police working on leads given by those already detained, Ahvaz prosecuter Iraj Amirkhani told ISNA.

He said 205 people were still being held in connection with last week's clashes in Ahvaz, a city where Iran's three percent Arab minority are in the majority.

According to official figures, five people were killed in the clashes.

Amirkhani said five "instigators" of the clashes were arrested in the midst of the unrest, and had "confessed they had been paid 20 mln rials)... to vandalise banks and public places".

The violence, which lasted from April 15-18, appeared to have been sparked by a forged letter, dating back seven years and attributed to then vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, calling for modifications to oil-rich Khuzestan's ethnic composition.

Iran's Islamic regime blamed foreigners and counter-revolutionaries for the ethnic tensions, but admitted the province's development was still hampered by the devastation it suffered during the 1980-88 war with neighbouring Iraq.

Authorities have made clear they have no intention of changing the ethnic balance of the province in favour of non-Arabs.

LONDON, April 27 (IranMania) - A journalist from the southwestern Iranian city of Khuzestan, the scene of recent unrest, has been arrested over his comments on the violence, the press rights group Reporters without Borders said Wednesday, according to AFP.

The Paris-based group said Yosef Azizi Banitrouf, an ethnic Arab, was arrested in a raid on his home on Monday.

"We strongly deplore the arrest of Banitrouf, who was simply expressing his personal opinion in articles and in interviews given to other newspapers," said Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders - RSF).

"As soon as a journalist speaks out in Iran, the authorities crack down, either by closing the paper concerned or throwing the journalist in prison. There are now 12 journalists and cyber-dissidents in jail in Iran, which remains the Middle East's biggest prison for journalists."

The arrest came after ethnic clashes which broke out on April 15 in the southern province of Khuzestan between security forces and the majority Arab community there.

RSF said Banitrouf was a leading Arab intellectual in Iran and had defended the protesters and condemned the violence.

In the wake of the violence, Iran also ordered the Arabic satellite television Al-Jazeera to "temporarily close" its Tehran bureau while it examined "the possible actions of the Al-Jazeera channel to provoke subversive elements in the troubles that took place", AFP added.

Officials said Sunday they had launched a fresh hunt for the alleged ringleaders of the unrest, and that 205 people were still being held in connection with the clashes -- which according to official figures left five people dead.

The unrest, which lasted from April 15-18, appeared to have been sparked by a forged letter, dating back seven years and attributed to then vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, calling for modifications to oil-rich Khuzestan's ethnic composition.

Iran's Islamic regime blamed foreigners and counter-revolutionaries for the ethnic tensions, but admitted the province's development was still hampered by the devastation it suffered during the 1980-1988 war with neighbouring Iraq.